Fukushima West Coast Ocean Radiation Monitoring

Since the ongoing Fukushima nuclear disaster on March 11, 2011, ground water has been contaminated from the melted cores in Units 1, 2, and 3. Three to four hundred metric tons of contaminated water have been flowing daily from the reactor cores, some of which is recovered and stored in tanks that have been leaking, and some has flowed directly into the Pacific Ocean. Thousands of gallons of contaminated water used to cool spent fuel rods are stored in poorly constructed tanks on site. There are plans to "decontaminate” this water, leaving only Tritium, and to be released into the ocean. Radioactive fallout was also released into the atmosphere from nuclear reactor explosions, with more than 80% of the radioactive particles falling into the ocean. It is predicted that ocean currents will carry a radioactive plume across the Pacific Ocean to the West Coast of North America arriving early in 2014.

Public confidence has been shaken. The nuclear operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), has been inept at dealing with the Fukushima crisis. Since the very beginning, TEPCO and the Japanese government have stated that the crisis was under control, only to be contradicted by the facts. The 2020 Olympics are still planned for Tokyo, and the newly passed secrecy act may prevent the dissemination of new, accurate information on the take-down of spent fuel rods in Unit 4, and the release of "decontaminated” water into the ocean. Only independent scientific study can assure the world that Fukushima does not continue to threaten the safety of our planet.